County bar association rates possible candidates for 2 judgeships

Voters who take an interest in the composition of the Chester County Common Pleas Court bench should be thankful for the list of possible candidates for two positions that will be open in 2014 and for which ballots will be cast in the 2013 November General Election.

The Chester County Bar Association members last week rated three county attorneys as “qualified” in a recent vote that previews the 2013 election. But the three others who did not make the grade in terms of having sufficient ballots cast about their qualifications all are known to a certain extent and give the voters a range of options.

The voters should also be heartened that the four current members of our county bench were also given the bar association’s thumbs up.

A total of six attorneys placed their names in the bar association’s plebiscite for two positions on the court that will be open in 2014. One is for the seat on the court being vacated by Judge Howard F. Riley Jr., who is retiring, and one for the seat formerly held by Judge Paula Francisco Ott, who now serves on the State Superior Court.

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Patrick Carmody, Julia Malloy-Good and Jeffrey Sommer were each found to be qualified.

Carmody is the county’s chief deputy district attorney and ran for the Republican nomination for district attorney in 2011. His name has been featured in recent news because of his successful prosecution of the Coatesville man who was accused of killing a city teenager and then dismembering him with a chain saw. Carmody sought, and won, a death penalty conviction against the man, and then paid tribute to the police who worked to solve the case and the victim’s family who had to endure four years of pain and anguish awaiting trial.

Malloy-Good is a special master in county Family Court, hearing support cases, and Sommer is a partner in the West Chester law firm of Buckley, Brion, McGuire, Morris & Sommer, and he was a candidate for the GOP nomination for Common Pleas Court judge in 2011. Sommer has played an active role in the fight against revenue crippling reassessments in the West Chester Area School District. All three are worthy of consideration in the coming campaign season.

Those who submitted their names for consideration but who were not given a rating either favorable or unfavorable include Thomas Purl, a former member of the Philadelphia public defender’s office who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Common Pleas judge in 2011; Allison Bell Royer, who served as county prothonotary and who also sought the GOP nomination for judge in 2011; and Steven Voight, an attorney with the Philadelphia law firm of Reed Smith. All three seem to have their own backers who will want to cast ballots in their favor.

The four Common Pleas Court judges seeking retention to another 10-year-term include President Judge James P. MacElree II, Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody, Judge Edward Griffith and Judge John Hall.

The members of the bar association all expressed confidence in their qualifications.